True Marketing Errors
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Below are fine examples of what happens when marketing translations fail to reach a foreign
country in an understandable way.
Coors put its slogan, "Turn it loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer from diarrhea."
Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into German only to find out that "mist" is slang
for manure. Not too many people had use for the "manure stick".
Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign:
Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.
The American slogan for Salem cigarettes, "Salem-Feeling Free", was translated into the
Japanese market as "When smoking Salem, you will feel so refreshed that your mind seems to
be free and empty."
When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with
the beautiful baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures
on the label of what's inside, since most people can't read English.
An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the
Pope's visit. Instead of "I saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I saw the potato" (la papa).
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into "Schweppes Toilet
Water."
Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi brings your ancestors back
from the grave," in Chinese.
When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say "It won't leak
in your pocket and embarrass you." However, the company mistakenly thought the spanish word
"embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make
you pregnant."
The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke
company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means
"bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then
researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le,"
which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth."
Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your
fingers off."
When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware
that "no va" means "it won't go." After the company figured out why it wasn't selling any cars, it
renamed the car in its Spanish markets to the Caribe.